OUYA To Mandate Free-To-Try Policy For All Apps On Platform

If Ouya fails at revolutionizing the gaming industry, it won't be from a lack of effort or ingenuity. In keeping with the open platform theme, Ouya chief Julie Uhrman reiterated that developers will be able to release whatever types of games they wish, so long as they adhere to a free-to-try format.

In doing so, Uhrman envisions a less cluttered and confusing app store. Her insistence on a free-to-try model also puts the consumer first, lessening the risk that a gamer will feel burned for having spent money on what they might consider to be a dud.

"It cleans up the app store," Uhrman told GamesIndustry International at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. "It removes the confusion between a paid app store and a free app store. We also think it cuts down on the copycat games, where you have games that look like each other and one is paid but the other is free and you don't know what to do."

That doesn't mean every game will be a winner, hence another reason why Ouya is committed to the try-before-you-buy approach. The company will check games for copyright infringement, malware, and pornography, but as for the quality of each game, Ouya isn't going to step in and dictate what games make the cut and which ones don't.